Students are the real masters of what they learn, the teachers are merely vessels for the students to activate. Many students, however, just want to get by, they will do the bare minimum in order to satisfy the requirements we as teachers put in front of them. The problem is that these students are not invested in their learning, they do not find most of the material interesting, so they play the "game of school". They have a one track mind that not only prevents them from expanding their minds but also limits their creativity. I personally did this frequently in school I floated along doing the assignments without putting much effort into any of them. I remember finding most topics in school boring and not worth my time (unless it was science, then I worked twice as hard). In order to improve schools, teachers must push these students to try their best. This cannot be done through constant nagging however, we must hook these students into learning. through the use of interactive lessons, videos, technology, etc, we can influence these students to want to learn. As the system is now teacher lack the time, resources and freedom in their lessons to incorporate this excitement in their classes due to strict guidelines that must be followed to fit into the state testing requirements.
It will take some work for me but I plan to break the monotony of school and really get my students involved, luckily I will be teaching science, a class that is just begging to be hands on. I feel that the only way to engage students is to create an environment that supports curiosity and is able to fulfill this thirst for answers. I want to be able to incorporate technology in the form of complex lab equipment, computer software, and other things that will allow students to really get into the thick of what they are learning. A very useful source is YouTube, the students are familiar with it and it can be accessed in an instant. On it I can find three dimensional videos that show how cells work, how the earth was formed, the process of evolution, etc. These are nice examples of materials that might engage students. What will you do to provide an authentic challenge?
In my classes I have not really seen much in the ways of breaking the "game of school". I can see that most of the kids do not care and while my cooperating teacher attempts to make it interesting he often does not grasp their full attention. I see students staring off into space, doodling, and completing assignments without much thought. My cooperating teacher constantly wishes he could do more exploratory learning, he wants to inspire students but often he is restricted by time constraints and subject matter constraints. I believe that the problem does not lie in the student but rather in the classroom itself. We need more freedom in classes and less strictness within what needs to be taught. What are the sources of these constraints?
It will take some work for me but I plan to break the monotony of school and really get my students involved, luckily I will be teaching science, a class that is just begging to be hands on. I feel that the only way to engage students is to create an environment that supports curiosity and is able to fulfill this thirst for answers. I want to be able to incorporate technology in the form of complex lab equipment, computer software, and other things that will allow students to really get into the thick of what they are learning. A very useful source is YouTube, the students are familiar with it and it can be accessed in an instant. On it I can find three dimensional videos that show how cells work, how the earth was formed, the process of evolution, etc. These are nice examples of materials that might engage students. What will you do to provide an authentic challenge?
In my classes I have not really seen much in the ways of breaking the "game of school". I can see that most of the kids do not care and while my cooperating teacher attempts to make it interesting he often does not grasp their full attention. I see students staring off into space, doodling, and completing assignments without much thought. My cooperating teacher constantly wishes he could do more exploratory learning, he wants to inspire students but often he is restricted by time constraints and subject matter constraints. I believe that the problem does not lie in the student but rather in the classroom itself. We need more freedom in classes and less strictness within what needs to be taught. What are the sources of these constraints?